CIT also stresses partnerships between the police and those in the community who provide mental health services. These partnerships identify resources that are available in a crisis and make it possible to plan effectively for diversion. CIT training classes utilize mental health professionals, community advocates, experienced police officers, and family members of those who suffer from mental illness.

“Since 2009, I have been committed to ensuring that 100 percent of Sanford Police Officers are CIT trained,” Connolly said. “It has been a long, five-year task and very expensive, since most of the training required the expenditure of overtime funds, but it has been worth every penny spent. I can see the difference in the attitudes of my officers, and I truly believe that they interact with people suffering from mental illness and crisis differently than they did five years ago.”

Connolly also noted that “nationally, a large percentage, perhaps as high as 30 percent, of the people with whom the police interact are suffering from some form of psychiatric disorder. Knowing this, how could you not invest in the skills taught through CIT? When you consider the implications of police-assisted suicide and excited delirium, I believe that CIT training should be a mandatory requirement of all police certifying organizations nationwide.”

For more information regarding the statistics, visit online at http://www.adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics.

Connolly said he wishes to thank Gilles “Gil” Soucy, the law enforcement coordinator for NAMI Maine, for his assistance in bringing the CIT classes to Sanford.